Town Law Would Cut Into Unkempt Lawns

Proposed Grass Rule Would Cut Untidy Lawns, Unchecked Weeds

BLOOMFIELD — Local officials are not just watching the grass grow in their effort to keep the town's image attractive -- for lawns, at least, they are considering making neatness the law.

In an effort to "help the aesthetics of the community" and to strike a blow against rodents, littering, poor traffic visibility and general blight, the town council is considering an ordinance that would prohibit people from allowing grass, weeds or "similar growths" in their yards to grow too long. Lawlessness would be declared beyond a height of 1 foot.

The ordinance is needed because some people in town have become estranged from their lawnmowers, said council member Sydney T. Schulman, whose town council subcommittee has recommended the proposed ordinance to the full council. The council may set a date for a public hearing on the landscaping ordinance today, at a 7:30 p.m. meeting in town hall.

"I had some complaints from people in both ends of town," Schulman said. "In one or two of those cases there were houses where the grass was a couple of feet high. There were little rodents nesting in it."

Schulman said it is important for town officials to do what they can to safeguard Bloomfield's appearance.

"I think it certainly enhances the image of the town," he said of the proposed ordinance. "It tells people who want to live here that we're serious about keeping ours a nice rural-slash-suburban town."

The right to do what you want on your own property is an ethic deeply ingrained in America, but Schulman, a lawyer, said towns have the power to regulate such things as grass height to protect the overall welfare of the community.

"That's why you have zoning laws," Schulman said. "Towns have a right to regulate health and safety, and that's precisely what this [proposed ordinance] is."

Bloomfield is not the only town in Connecticut to adopt or

consider an ordinance that regulates the height of lawns. West Hartford, for example, has a regulation that parallels the ordinance Bloomfield is considering: No grass or weeds are permitted to be longer than 1 foot on any premises where there is a building or dwelling, whether the building or dwelling is occupied or not. On undeveloped lots, says the West Hartford regulation and the proposed Bloomfield rule, grass may not be any longer than 1 foot within 25 feet of a street line or adjoining property line where there is a building.

If the ordinance is approved, Schulman said, town officials will not be running around neighborhoods with a ruler. But the ordinance would give the town a weapon against yards that have gone completely to seed.

Those residents declining to cut the grass after being warned would face fines of $25 a day, up to $500. Those who refuse to cut their grass would have it cut by the town, and the town would place a lien on the property to cover the cost of the work.

"We said you can have grass a foot long. That's awfully long grass," Schulman said. "We have a right to say that you can do what you want on your own property, but you can't encroach on somebody else's property.